


The Living Club

by FeralPrince56



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Blood, Gen, P5 Dark Bang, Psychological Horror, School Live AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23366362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralPrince56/pseuds/FeralPrince56
Summary: Futaba is excited to start her new year at Shuujin. This year, the students are all really nice, the teachers care about their students and there’s plenty of fun activities. But if there’s one thing she can pinpoint her excitement to, it’s her friends School Living Club. A club run by Makoto Niijima, it aims to teach its club members normal, everyday skills such as cooking and gardening, all the while having one rule; you cannot leave the school.It’s an odd rule, but Futaba understands it’s meant for an all immersive experience!There can’t be anything more sinister to it in such a fun school like this, right?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	The Living Club

There’s a soft, tingly feeling in Futaba’s toes that stick out from the end of her duvet. She giggles through her sleep but moves around enough that the duvet covers her whole foot. When she moves around more, a sudden sharp pain in her foot wakes her up. She shrieks, clutching her foot and rubbing it where she was bit, “Mona! That’s so rude! You don’t just bite people’s toes, no matter how fun it looks!” She throws her pillow at the cat, who manages to jump out of the way just in time to not get hit.

Futaba groans, lays back down, and tries to fall back asleep, but the cat pats her head and meows loudly at her in an attempt to properly wake her up. With yet another, albeit louder groan she sits up, lifts the cat up and sets him on her lap before patting his head. “Can’t you go ask for food somewhere else? I still have-” her voice cuts off when she looks up at the clock on the wall and notices the time. She gasps and scrambles to the floor, flinging her covers off, scattering her covers, pillows and mat all over the room. Morgana jumps away but still gets covers thrown on his head. “-no time at all! Ah! Makoto is so gonna kill me when she finds out I was late!”

She opens up the wardrobe to grab her clothes off the hangers, quickly changing into the Shuujin school uniform. Just before leaving, she ties up her hair and picks her homework off of the floor and shoves it into her bag. She goes to the school club room before class. Closing the doors of the storage closet, she runs down the hall with Morgana following right behind her.

“I’m here!” She announces as soon as she opens the doors, panting from the distance she had to run. “I’m sorry I’m late!” She bows as the other girls chuckle lightly. As soon as the smell of breakfast fills her nose, she stands up straight and takes a seat at the table in the middle of the club room. “What’s for breakfast?”

“You seem particularly excited today,” Haru comments, cleaning her shovel with a wet rag. Across from her, Ann paints over her nails, this time a bright red to match her leggings, while Makoto stands at the small stove, stirring whatever was cooking in the pot in front of her. She’s wearing a slightly torn apron so as not to get food on her own school uniform. A club president had to look her best, of course.

“I’m hoping that it’s tomato soup…?” Makoto replies to Futaba’s question, and she leans down a little to turn off the stove, putting a lid on the top of the pot to prevent it from getting cold before she can serve it, “This time I just wish the instructions on the can weren’t joking when they said to cook it for 15 minutes,” she sighs and turns around to take dishes out from the cupboard above her.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll eat anything right now, anyway,” Ann remarks, putting the lid on her varnish cautiously before waving her hands in an attempt to make her nail polish dry more quickly. “Need any help, Mako-chan?”

Makoto shakes her head, pulling out a dish one by one, each time pouring soup into it with her ladle before placing it in front of one of the girls. Mona meows loudly, scraping his nails against the wooden table. Haru gasps and waves her hand above him to try to stop him from scratching any further, “No! Don’t ruin the furniture!”

She stands up, leans her shovel against a wall and opens up a different cupboard containing cans of dried food. She reaches for one of the higher shelves for a can of cat food, then pours it into the clean cat bowl. “We have to remember to clean it more frequently as it gets warmer,” she comments and moves over to the sink to wash out the can before throwing it out.

Morgana happily hops over to the bowl and digs right in. The girls all exhale in relief, considering the cats preferences for certain foods over others, “Seems like he likes the tuna ones now,” Ann comments while Haru and Makoto sit back down.

Makoto hands everybody a spoon, and just when Futaba is about to dig in, the club president clears her throat to stop her. The younger girl looks up and sees that the other girls have their hands pressed together, so she sets down her spoon and joins them. “Thank you for the meal,” they all say, and only then do they pick up their spoons and begin their meal.

This time, the soup is cooked to perfection, neither too hot like Makoto’s attempt at miso or too cold like her attempt at ramen, but just right. Futaba eats the soup so fast she’s only just about careful enough to not get any of it on her turtleneck. When there’s almost nothing of it left, she lifts the dish and drinks it straight from there.

“Have you got your homework?” Makoto makes sure to ask when the younger girl sets down her practically clean bowl.

She nods quickly and looks at the clock on the wall, gasping when she sees the time, “Ah! I gotta run or I’ll be _so_ late! I can’t be late a third day in a row!” She jumps out of her chair, grabs her bag, and runs out of the room before any of the girls can comment on it. She hears some chuckling behind her from the club-room, but she knows it’s all in good faith and making the girls happy with her antics puts a smile on Futaba’s face too.

* * *

She manages to run into the class before the teacher is even there, and she unpacks her things once she’s at her desk, with her classmates looking on. The girl next to her is particularly interested, resting her chin in her palm. She speaks once Futaba’s finally settled down, “I heard you and Kurusu-kun were hanging out yesterday on the roof during lunch.”

Futaba nods eagerly. “Oh yeah, Akira’s great! It wasn’t just me and him, Haru was there too but I guess she was too busy with her garden to talk to us…”

“Garden?” the girl asks with a raised eyebrow. “Wow, the school living club really gets everything, huh?”

Once again, Futaba nods. “Yeah! Well, we have special permission for it, ya know? Can’t learn how to live on your own if you don’t have any food to live off of and all that,” she informs the girl, who’s clearly less interested in the functioning of her club and more on the topic she brought up in the first place.

“So, think you can introduce me? To Kurusu-kun, I mean,” the girl asks with a sly grin, “He’s quiet, but he’s really cute, you know? I think we’d really get along.”

Futaba awkwardly laughs and waves her hand in the air, “Eh… you’re right in thinking he’s quiet, I can ask I-I guess…” She’s saved when the teacher walks in and sets her books down. The blackboard is still covered in barely legible scribbles written in red chalk, and Kawakami shakes her head.

“This is yesterday’s lesson, who was in charge of cleaning the board?” She asks, and everyone’s attention suddenly turns to Futaba. Her eyes go wide as she jumps out of her seat and races to the board.

“I’m so sorry! I’ll get this done right away!” She announces before grabbing the dry sponge, running out of the room and going to the nearest bathroom to wet it. As she runs the sink, she hears footsteps and looks up. In the cracked mirror she finds Ann smiling at her.

“Oh, Futaba, I’m so happy I found you here!” Ann smiles and takes her by the wrist. She begins to drag Futaba out. Futaba just barely manages to turn the tap off before leaving. “I really need your help; I can’t find Morgana anywhere!”

“Don’t you have class right now, Takamaki-san?” Futaba asks, but lets the girl guide her down the corridor. She passes her class on the way and her eyes go wide, “Wait! I’m supposed to be in class too!”

Ann waves her hand in the air dismissively, “It’s totally fine, don’t worry about it, Futaba! I… I got special permission from Kawakami, and I have a free period right now anyway. Besides, finding Morgana is way more important, no? You know he has to follow our rules too.”

Futaba gasps loudly when she realises just how bad this could be. Anyone caught breaking the School Living Clubs rules is immediately banned from it. They’re strict, Futaba knows that, but even Morgana has to obey them! She pulls her wrist away and points in the opposite direction, “Um… he really likes playing up on the roof, so let’s try looking over there first!”

* * *

When they reach the rooftop, they find Haru already tending to her tomato’s, as well as some members of the gardening club taking care of their own vegetables. Futaba runs over to Haru while Ann begins searching around the rooftop for the mischievous cat, “Have you seen Mona anywhere here? We lost him again… oh but don’t tell Makoto!”

Haru shakes her head and smiles, “I have not seen him here, and I wouldn’t be too concerned. It isn’t the first time he’s disappeared from us then reappeared as soon as he heard one of us opening a new can of cat food, no?”

“Ah! Oh no!”

The sound of a can hitting the floor on the other side of the roof and Ann’s shouting distracts Futaba and causes her to jump when she sees Ann and some other students in what she believes to be blood, “Ah! What happened?! Are you okay Takamaki-san?!” She runs over as quickly as she can, trying her best not to run into any of the plants.

Ann sighs as she pulls off her school blazer, then takes off the jumper underneath, revealing that the ‘blood’ all over her body was not blood at all, but in fact dark red paint that had fallen off a wall and spilled all over the surrounding students. The other girls with paint on them run away and leave the rooftop, presumably to wash it off, but Ann stays there as she tries to remove all of the clothing that had gotten covered by the paint, “Don’t worry Futaba, I’m fine, it’s just paint after all! Oh, uh, you do know you can just call me Ann though, right?”

Futaba smiles with closed eyes, and begins rubbing the back of her head awkwardly, trying to recover from the overreaction to just some paint spilling, her heart still beating like crazy while she hears Haru giggle in the background, “Ah, it’s super weird, but okay! I’ll try to remember it!” When she reopens her eyes, Ann is standing in front of her, wearing nothing but her tank top and underwear. Sure, it’s getting warmer with summer quickly approaching, but they were still in school!

Futaba grabs the next best thing she can find, a sheet hung up on a piece of string and left to dry, and tries to cover Ann with it, “You can’t go around school like that! The teachers are totally gonna give you detention!”

“Huh?” Ann looks around, and now that the girls from earlier had run off, it was just her, Haru and Futaba left on the rooftop, no teachers to be found anywhere, “Oh… Haha, I-... Um, yeah, but there’s no teachers here, right? I’ll be okay.”

With her free hand, Futaba points down into the courtyard, and even if it was 3 floors up, the boys were still staring and creepy ogling the model from down below, “But they can totally see you! They’re all eyeing up your hot body! A teacher might notice it too and then we’re all done for!”

“Haha, oops!” Ann replies awkwardly, accepting the sheet and cover herself with it, “I didn’t really think of that…” she trails off, the red paint now dripping off her ponytails and onto the fabric, while the wet clothes in her hands also stain the white sheet, “Um, I’ll go wash these, and myself while I’m at it. At least I found Morgana… but he ran away again.”

“I’ll look for him on my own, it’s okay!” Futaba reassures her, and with a curt nod, Ann thanks her and walks back inside the building. Now done with her plants, Haru picks up her shovel and wipes the dirt off it with her handkerchief, shaking her head as she does it.

“My, my, Mona-chan sure is elusive. I would offer my help in searching for him, but unfortunately, I am quite busy here,” she tells the girl and puts her handkerchief back into her pocket, “perhaps you could ask Mako-chan for some help?”

Futaba shakes her head and sighs heavily, “Mona’s kinda scared of her cause she has like… an authoritative aura or something like that, he’ll probably just run away… oh!” she exclaims when the school bell rings, signalling their lunch break, “I can totally ask Akira for help now! Mona loves him. Actually, knowing Mona he’s probably already snuck into his bag!” With a skip in her step, Futaba walks in the same direction Ann left two minutes before her, while Haru returns to tending to her garden.

* * *

Skipping down the corridor while looking for both Morgana and Akira, she doesn’t notice Ryuji leaving the classroom and closing the scratched-up door, only to turn around and have Futaba crash into him. They collapse on the floor and Futaba quickly gets to her feet, waving her hands in front of her in a frantic apology, “Ahh! Ryuji! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to run into you like that!”

Ryuji props himself up on his hands, then gets up on his feet, rubbing the back of his head after it hit the floor, and yet despite getting hurt, he smiles down at her, “Don’t worry ‘bout it, just make sure that you actually look when you’re runnin’ around like that. It’d be pretty bad if I was Kawakami, or Chuono, or worst of all, Kamoshida.”

Futaba nods along, agreeing with just how awkward it would be to explain herself to all the teachers when what she’s doing is chasing a cat that probably shouldn’t even be in the school to begin with. Speaking of… “Have you seen Akira? I lost Mona and he loves that guy, so he’s probably run off to hang out with him.”

Ryuji points down the hall, towards class 2-D where Akira and Ann should be in the first place, “He’s gotta be in there, right? He ain’t ditching class like the troublemaker in front of me,” he smirks at Futaba, who turns away at his comment and strides over to the other class.

“It’s fine! I have special permission! And it’s lunch time now anyway!” She informs him and opens the door to the class.

Inside, the students all mingle during the lunch hour, and their teacher isn’t anywhere to be seen either. Ann’s still probably busy washing off the paint, but at least Akira seems to be around, petting the sleeping cat on his desk.

**Oh!**

**The sleeping cat!**

“Mona!” Futaba exclaims as she runs over to Akira’s desk, almost knocking down two other students in her wake. Morgana stirs a little in his sleep, but other than that he barely moves, Akira moving his hand away when Futaba reaches him, “How long has he been here?”

Akira shrugs, “He was here this morning for a bit,” he tells her and gets out of his seat, “He left but came back here like twenty minutes ago. Have you been looking for him this whole time?”

Futaba nods once and smiles, patting Morgana on the head a few times, “Ann couldn’t find him and was getting worried that he broke one of our rules… huh, that’s weird… he was here this morning? During class?”

Akira hums in a positive tone.

“Then Ann should’ve known he’s here… oh!” Futaba gasps, and it seems to wake Morgana up properly. The cat stretches, yawns, then jumps off the desk to go find another place to nap. Futaba, still caught up in her theorising barely takes any notice of this, “She must’ve been ditching class!”

“Broke one of your rules?” Akira asks for clarification, but before she can say anything, she’s interrupted when two other students join the conversation.

“You’re talking about your club, are you not?” Akechi asks. It’s the first time in a while that she’s seen the third year since he normally stays in his class on the bottom floor, and while Futaba isn’t too fond of him, it’s nice that at least he decided to bring Yusuke along with him.

Or more likely, Yusuke was already on his way from his own class and ran into the senior detective on his way here.

Despite any negative feelings she may have towards the pretentious and quite often rude guy, Futaba still tries to answer his question in the nicest way she can muster,

“It’s none of your business!”

Or not.

Akechi, Akira and even Yusuke chuckle lightly in response to her sudden outburst, “Come now, Futaba. Must you act in such a childish manner?” Yusuke asks her and it only adds fuel to her behaviour.

She folds her arms and pouts, trying to act as dramatic as possible, “No one asked you, Inari!”

Instead of allowing for this interaction to spawn further arguments, Akira, undoubtedly the least problematic person in the group in Futaba’s eyes, interrupts their bickering, “Um… so what did you mean by breaking the rules? What kind of club are you part of?”

“The School Living Club!” Futaba throws her hands up in the air, all of her previous negative energy gone as the distraction of talking about her favourite school activity gets her going, “It’s a small club, but I love it so much! We cook, we clean, we chat, but most importantly, we live at this school like it’s our own home! Honestly, I’ve almost forgotten what living at home feels like, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Well… I do miss Sojiro… but it’s okay!”

Talk of the school living club seems to interest the other three enough to bring up even more questions. Unfortunately, the school bell rings again, signaling the end of their lunch hour, and with it, the teacher walks back into the classroom, “Okay everybody, lunch break is over, get back to your classes!”

* * *

Back on the rooftop, Ann hangs up her wet clothes with Makoto’s help while behind them Haru continues to tend to her garden, “I know why we’re doing things like this but… are you sure it’s the right thing to do? I’m worried about her…”

Makoto nods, clipping Ann’s school jacket to the line so the wind doesn’t blow it to the ground where the students below groan and drag their feet across the field during their gym hour, “I know, but she seems happy, and I can’t let her go back to how she was when the year started. She was so distraught, she didn’t know what to do with herself and now she’s actively participating in classes, she’s gained some friends and she’s not afraid of anything anymore.”

“Other than perhaps losing Mona-chan,” Haru interrupts her, “But that cat loves her too, so I don’t think he’ll disappear, despite scaring us every day with his sudden absences.”

After hanging up her skirt, Ann reaches for her jumper and as she pulls it out, she notices that Makoto is hanging onto the other end of it, “I can-.”

“It’s fine,” Makoto reassures her and takes the jumper from her, “If you’re so worried then feel free to go check on her. She knows not to leave the school but who knows what she might be up to during the day. You can always just chat with her, she always seems to be happy to talk with any of us about her day.”

* * *

When Futaba returns to class, the same girl that had talked to her in the morning perks up upon her arrival, smiling at Futaba as she approaches her own desk. Futaba gives her a tired little wave before slipping into her desk chair. She leans a little bit back before her head falls and slams against the desk, “So… sleepy... “

“Sleepy?” The girl asks, “We still have afternoon classes! You can’t just fall asleep before class starts!”

“Leave me alone,” Futaba groans in frustration, “I had a really busy day chasing after this one idiot. I really like him, but he always seems to get me into trouble.”

“Oh?” The girl smirks and Futaba opens one eye to look at her, “You like him, huh? Tell me more.”

“Oh… um…” Futaba mutters and sits back up properly to gush about Mona. Sure, the cat infuriated her to no end whenever he ran off and tried to break the club's rules but she loved him and couldn’t imagine a day of school without the little devil, “Well, he’s in the same club as me, he’s got dark hair… uh, he woke me up today by biting my toes and that really annoyed me.”

The girl cocks an eyebrow, caught off guard by the description of the cat, “Uh… I suppose some guys are into that kind of thing. But if you don’t like it, you should probably just say something.”

Futaba shakes her head, “Nah I always tell him off for stuff but I don’t think he understands. He always just has this pouty look on his face like he’s the victim,” she rolls her eyes, “At least now he’s stopped jumping on me in the middle of the night.”

“Jumping on you?!” The girl exclaims, “What kind of guy is this?”

“Guy…?” Futaba trails off before the realisation hits her that the two of them were imagining two completely different scenarios, “Oh! No, Mona is a cat, not a guy! I was just chasing him around school because he’s not supposed to get in the way of the other students,” a draft comes in and she looks up towards the broken windows.

“Oh it’s getting a bit cold in here,” she gets out of her chair and closes the window just as the teacher walks in. She retreats back to her desk and puts her head on it for some not-so-well deserved rest.

* * *

Ann could already hear the loud purring of the cat before she reached the door leading her back into the school, but she didn’t expect to almost trip over the poor thing on the stairs. From his spot on the second last step leading up to the roof, Morgana looks up with his big blue eyes and meows at her like she’s the problem, “Wasn’t Futaba looking for you ?” She asks the cat, but he only meows back at her. Why was she even expecting a coherent reply from him? “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

She reaches down to pick up the cat, and while he meows in protest, he doesn’t do anything to stop her. She puts one hand under him and the other on his back, and Morgana readjusts until he’s leaning his paws against her shoulder and looking behind her. Once she’s sure he won’t try to run away from her, she walks down the stairs and begins to call out Futaba’s name.

She’s a first year, and if she has classes then she should be here, so why isn’t she replying? Perhaps she already finished and went down to the club room or decided to meet up with her other friends. With plenty of time on her hands, Ann continues walking down the empty hallways while Morgana meows at her occasionally, and she replies like she’s having a normal conversation with him, “Don’t worry, we’ll find her soon. I’m sure she just got caught up talking to one of her other friends.”

“Meow.”

“Well what else am I supposed to do?” Ann asks the cat like he’d provide her with all the answers she needed, “I can’t exactly just barge into the principal’s office and ask her to go to the club-room over the intercom. It would attract unwanted attention.”

“Meow.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s fine too. Futaba?” She calls out again but no reply.

She starts by opening up each classroom she passes with the hand that wasn’t holding up the cat, but just as always, they’re completely deserted, no sign of life anywhere to be found. She opens one classroom door, but it’s clearly not been entered for a while as she begins to sneeze when the dust that had collected inside rushes into the air from the draft she created.

It's only the last classroom down the corridor that has any life in it.

In the middle of the overturned desks and broken chairs, the bloodstains on the broken windows and the scratches on the floor, Futaba sits at her desk, taking some notes into her notepad. When she hears the door opening, she looks over and smiles at Ann, “Don’t worry, I just wanted to copy down what we needed to do for homework. I’ll be there in a second!”

Ann sets Mona down on the floor and lets the cat walk over to her younger friend, one of her three friends left at this school. She narrows her eyes and looks down, “Y-yeah… don’t worry about yourself, take your time Futaba.”

The girl finishes up writing her notes and shoves them into her bag. She leaves the classroom and closes the door, though the broken hinges make it harder and the door is left slightly ajar, “Wow today I did so much running, maybe I should join the track team?”

Ann shakes her head and tries to give her a warm smile, “You couldn’t even catch up to Mona, I think you’ll need to train a little more. Besides, you’re not going to abandon us, are you?”

“I can be part of two clubs!” Futaba exclaims defensively, “But I guess you’re right, I’d have to split my time between the two but I already have you guys at the School Living Club and it would be scary joining a completely new one,” Futaba stops and turns to the shattered windows which looked down to the track field. She sighs as she watches the scene below, “Well, maybe if I ever get better with people, I’ll think about it. But I’m having so much fun here!”

Ann reluctantly walks over to the windows and looks to the track field where the remainder of the students, or whatever they were now, dragged their feet and moaned as they moved out of the school, as if leaving for the day. Maybe some part of them was still in there. They always seemed to leave for the night and come back around the time school used to start. She looks away, unable to watch much longer.

The students outside groan loudly, as if communicating with each other even though Ann wasn't sure they really could understand speech anymore. You certainly couldn't reason with them, they tried that before but all they were interested was just infecting others.

Except they weren't students anymore.

Ann had to stop thinking of them that way if she wanted to survive.

“Yeah… maybe one day we can go running together, Futaba.”

“I can’t wait!”


End file.
